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Monday, 1 June 2020

In this video for Art Club I show you how to draw a cat. You will only need very basic materials for this drawing; paper, pencil and a rubber. If you would like to draw along with me, please feel free to pause the video any time you like! We will be using simple shapes as guides for our drawing before adding in details and I also share some ideas on how to draw different types of cats, like cats with stripes or long hair.

I hope you enjoy this video - don't forget to check out my other Art Club videos! If you have any comments or questions please leave them in the comments section below. I would love to see your cat drawings too! If you share photos on social media tag me @hazelfishercreations (on Facebook or Instagram) or use #hfcartclub

Tuesday, 12 May 2020

With current lockdown restrictions in place the art club I have been running at a local primary school is currently on hold, so in the meantime I have decided to start up an online art club. This has the added benefit that even more people can join in! Art Club is for anyone who wants to learn about drawing and improve their art skills, whatever your age or skill level.

In our first video I will be showing you how to draw a barn owl, using simple shapes as guides to help you with your drawing before adding in details. All you need for this is a pencil and paper and if you want to draw along with me feel free to pause the video at any time.

I hope you enjoy this video! If you have any questions or comments please leave them in the comments section below. I would love to see your barn owl drawings too! If you share photos on social media tag me @hazelfishercreations (on Facebook or Instagram) or use #hfcartclub

Friday, 10 April 2020

You may have already seen that I have been creating printable colouring pages which you can download for free. I wanted to do something to help people in these challenging times and thought that colouring sheets would be a fun activity to occupy children (and adults!) while staying safe at home. Creativity is also a great way to deal with stress and give your mind a break from all the worrying thoughts that may be running around your head, particularly at the moment.

I want to do more though. While many of us are doing our bit by staying at home, following guidance from the government, there are many people working in key roles or volunteering. They work in schools, care homes, grocery shops, deliver our post and continue to provide emergency services to name but a few. The people truly on the front line are the NHS workers; doctors, nurses and all the support staff who are essential to keep our hospitals running. I recently watched a news report from an intensive care unit in a hospital where they were caring for coronavirus patients. It was distressing to watch, but I felt it was important to understand what was going on. The NHS are doing an amazing job, in such difficult cirumstances. In return, we can support them. The NHS Charities Together COVID-19 Urgent Appeal has been set up to support NHS staff, volunteers and patients impacted by COVID-19. Donations to the charity could help in many ways, such as funding well-being packs, supporting isolated patients and provide longer term mental health support for staff, volunteers, patients and their families.

I have set up a fundraising page in support of the NHS Charities Together COVID-19 Urgent Appeal. The colouring pages I design and make available for you to download are free, but I would ask you to consider making a donation to the charity when you download them. It is completely up to you how much you would like to donate - if everyone donates even just a small amount it would all add up! If you are not able to make a donation that's ok, you can still download the colouring pages but if you could share this post with your family and friends that would be fantastic.

The sheet is available in both A4 and letter size pages as well as JPG and PDF formats, so you can choose whichever one suits you best to download and print.
** Please note: this free printable is for personal use only! You can print it as many times as you like for your own personal use, but you may not redistribute it in any form or modify it or claim it as your own. If you would like to share the colouring page with your friends, on your blog/ Pinterest etc. please include a link back to this page (not the download link). Thank you!

Butterflies and Flowers

Click here to go to the page to download the butterflies and flowers themed colouring page.

Rockets in Space

Click here to go to the page to download the butterflies and flowers themed colouring page.

I will be creating more colouring pages in the coming weeks, so check back here for updates to the list!

I would love to see how you colour your pages in - leave a comment below, or if you share your pictures on Instagram or Facebook tag me @hazelfishercreations or use #myhfcmakes

Wednesday, 8 April 2020

I have created another free printable colouring page for you! This time it has a space theme, with retro inspired rockets, an astronaut, stars and planets. I would love to see what colours you choose to colour this in - leave a comment below, or if you share your pictures on Instagram or Facebook tag me @hazelfishercreations or use #myhfcmakes

The sheet is available in both A4 and letter size pages as well as JPG and PDF formats, so you can choose whichever one suits you best to download and print.
** Please note: this free printable is for personal use only! You can print it as many times as you like for your own personal use, but you may not redistribute it in any form or modify it or claim it as your own. If you would like to share the colouring page with your friends, on your blog/ Pinterest etc. please include a link back to this page (not the download link). Thank you!

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I have set up a fundraising page in support of the NHS Charities Together COVID-19 Urgent Appeal. The colouring pages I design and make available for you to download are free, but I would ask you to consider making a donation to the charity when you download them. It is completely up to you how much you would like to donate - if everyone donates even just a small amount it would all add up! If you are not able to make a donation that's ok, you can still download the colouring pages but if you could share this post with your family and friends that would be fantastic.

Tuesday, 31 March 2020

Since so many of us are staying at home at the moment, self-isolating and following the guidelines on social distancing, I thought it would be a good idea to put together a list with ideas for things you can do at home. I've grouped ideas into different categories, so whether you are looking after your children at home, missing going out visiting places or looking for a little distraction in these anxious times there should be something for you to do on the list! I will keep it updated if I spot new ideas and if you have any suggestions please do let me know in the comments.
Stay safe and stay healthy everyone x

Music
- Listen to some of your favourite music.
- Make a playlist for a friend.
- Practise playing an instrument and learn new pieces by searching for sheet music online.

Enjoy Nature
We are fortunate in the UK that we are heading into spring and the weather (so far!) has been improving. Whilst a lot of life feels like it has been put on pause, nature is still carrying on as normal. Go outside in your garden or if you don't have a garden, what can you see or hear from your window? Listen for the birds singing and see the flowers blossoming and trees becoming greener.
I will be spending as much time as possible in my garden over the coming weeks. I expect a lot of people will have tidier gardens than normal! I plan to sow vegetable and flower seeds, but if you don't have a garden you can still experience the joy of watching a plant grow. Herbs can be grown on a kitchen windowsill. Did you know that there are lots of vegetables that can be regrown too? If you don't have a pot of compost for growing a plant inside you can grow carrot tops, celery and onions in a saucer of water.

Exercise
Get (or keep) fit! Even in a very small amount of space there are still exercises you can do. Sometimes if I'm feeling a bit anxious or stressed I like to remind myself how exercise releases endorphins and will make me feel better.

Joe Wicks has lots of free workout videos on his Youtube channel The Body Coach TV - including a daily PE lesson for children.

Dance - this combines listening to music to make you feel good and some exercise! I've been learning a routine to 'Come Alive' from The Greatest Showman via this video from Beginner Dance Tutorials on Youtube. I'm not very coordinated when it comes to dancing, but this video is easy to follow and fun!

Practise Yoga - Yoga With Adriene has lots of great videos to follow, ranging from short to long sessions and routines to help you relax or burn off a few calories.

Get Creative
Lots of designers are being generous right now and sharing free printables. I have designed some colouring pages, including the butterflies design shown below, which are free for you to download via this page. I have also set up a fundraising page to raise money for the NHS Charities Together Urgent COVID-19 Appeal, so if you are able to donate when you download the pages that would be great too!

Here are some others I found which you might like:- Angie Spurgeon has shared a weekly planner and Dahlia, Rose & Agapanthus colour-in sheet.- Cara Rowlands has been creating lots of free colouring pages which you can see on her Instagram page Carabaradesigns
- Spoonflower have created a printable colouring book for you to download, featuring designs to colour by 10 different artists.
Have you seen rainbows popping up in the windows of your neighbourhood? I spotted lots on my one trip out to the supermarket. A think the trend started in Italy, but has spread around the world. It's a lovely thing to do to spread a little hope and raise a smile for your neighbours. People are sharing their rainbows online with #letsallbewell.

Start (or finish) a craft project. Did you start knitting a jumper or sewing a dress ages ago but never finished it? Now's the perfect time to do it! I've been looking through my stack of sewing patterns trying to decide what to make next. I've also been meaning to sew some oven gloves for ages but keep getting scared by the wadding which I've never used before, so maybe I'll do those first!

There are plenty of craft tutorials online too. You can see all the ones from my blog here.

Learn a new skill
There are thousands of classes to explore on Skillshare and if you sign up via this link you can get 2 months of Premium membership for free!

Make Art That Sells is currently offering their MBA (Money BadAss) online course for free (instead of the usual £178). The course is about making money from doing what you love and building a successful business - find out more on their website.

Affinity is currently offering a 90 day free trial of their suite of software; Publisher, Photo and Designer and a 50% discount if you want to buy and keep them. I love their software - it's what I use for creating my designs!

Read a book
We are lucky to have lots of books in our house, so it would take a very long time for us to run out of things to read! However, if you don't have many books at home there are lots of eBooks you can access online for free.Oxford Owl have books for 3-11 year olds
Local libraries may be shut for now, but if you look up your library's website you can borrow e-books, audio books and e-magazines.

Other Ideas:
- Play a board game with a friend via a video call. You might not be able to meet face to face but you can still play a game together! Some games, like cards probably won't work but plenty of board games could be played from a distance for example battleships, chess, draughts, monopoly or snakes and ladders.
- Do a quiz with a friend online.
- If you are really desperate and have done everything else you could always clean your house and do some of those house jobs you never normally have time for!!

Tuesday, 24 March 2020

It's been a long time since I last wrote a blog post - I had to remind myself how I actually write one and the html code I need use! The spread of the corona virus has turned the world upside down and life for so many of us has dramatically changed over the last few weeks. It's a strange and scary time, but more important than ever to look out for one another as well as looking after ourselves. I wanted to find ways that I can try to do something more to help. If you are staying at home for the foreseeable future, home schooling children or just want something to take your mind off the news for a while, art and creativity can be really helpful.
I have designed a free printable colouring page for you to download and colour and am planning some other ideas which I will share with you soon. You can also check out all my past craft project posts here. This butterflies and flowers colouring page design has lots of details, so should keep you or your children occupied for a while!

I would love to see your coloured pages - leave a comment below, or if you share your pictures on Instagram or Facebook tag me @hazelfishercreations or use #myhfcmakes

The sheet is available in both A4 and letter size pages as well as JPG and PDF formats, so you can choose whichever one suits you best to download and print.
** Please note: this free printable is for personal use only! You can print it as many times as you like for your own personal use, but you may not redistribute it in any form or modify it or claim it as your own. If you would like to share the colouring page with your friends, on your blog/ Pinterest etc. please include a link back to this page (not the download link). Thank you!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I have set up a fundraising page in support of the NHS Charities Together COVID-19 Urgent Appeal. The colouring pages I design and make available for you to download are free, but I would ask you to consider making a donation to the charity when you download them. It is completely up to you how much you would like to donate - if everyone donates even just a small amount it would all add up! If you are not able to make a donation that's ok, you can still download the colouring pages but if you could share this post with your family and friends that would be fantastic.

Friday, 18 January 2019

Last summer my sister and I visited Blue Owl, a pottery painting studio, cafe and gift shop, in Great Horkesley, (just outside Colchester) Essex. We really enjoyed our visit and would definitely recommend taking a trip there yourself if you are in the area!
The building itself is a converted country pub - a beautiful old building, full of character (including wood beams). Everyone at Blue Owl is very friendly and the place has a lovely, relaxed atmosphere. We enjoyed sampling the cakes on offer and browsing the gifts before choosing some pottery to paint. There is a very wide range of pottery items to choose from: coasters, mugs, plates, figurines, tea pots, vases and much more! With so much choice it was hard to pick what to paint, but after a lot of pondering we each decided to paint a plate.

My friend, the talented illustrator Helen Smith, works in the kiln room and is Blue Owl's resident artist so she was able to give us a tour of the kiln room and show us how the pottery painting process works which was very interesting! I had never done pottery painting before, only having worked a little with ceramics back at school and in art college, so I really enjoyed learning something new.

Friday, 11 January 2019

I thought that it would be fun to start up sharing my colour palettes again and to try out the palettes with my own designs. This palette was inspired by my photo of sea holly, which not only has interesting colours but striking textures and shapes too. I enjoyed taking lots of photos of plants in the garden centre during last summer so be prepared for more plant inspired palettes coming soon!

Monday, 29 October 2018

I began Inktober with the best of intentions to draw everyday, however, as it often does things got busy and I've fallen behind. I will still complete my list of 31 prompts, it will just end up being 'Inkvember' instead of 'Inktober'!!!
Here's a round-up of my drawings for days 1-10...

Monday, 22 October 2018

Creating a cut and sew fat quarter design was the challenge for this week's Spoonflower contest. I have been wanting to design more cut and sew projects for a while, so the contest was a perfect prompt for me to work on this!

Thursday, 18 October 2018

This is part 5 of a series on learning the basics of using printables and how to get more out of them. In this post I will be focusing on how you can print and resize digital scrapbooking papers.

The scrapbooking papers in my shop are all sized 12 x 12 inches. This means they are great for using in 12 inch albums - to print them 12 x 12 inch size:
- You can take the files to your local professional printers to be printed 12 x 12 inch size
- They can be printed on A3+ size printers (check your model will take 12 inch wide paper)
However, if you don’t have access to a large format printer you can still use these files with your A4 / Letter size home printer.

Monday, 15 October 2018

This week's Spoonflower design challenge has a limited colour palette theme - the brief allowed us to create a design on any theme we liked so long as we used at least 3 of the colours specified by Spoonflower (black or white accents were also allowed).
I decided to create a floral and butterfly themed design...

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Hello! I'm Hazel. I am an illustrator, designer and maker - I love to be creative! Here on my blog I share my designs, the things that inspire me and crafty DIY projects for you to try! You can read more about me here.

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